Dred Scott was slave who sued for his liberty in the Missouri courts, arguing that four years on free soil had made him free. He was once owned by army surgeon John Emerson. Dred Scott’s attorney argued that between 1831 and 1833, John Emerson had taken Scott with him during various military postings to areas where the Missouri Compromise banned slavery, making Dred Scott a free man. When nearly after six years in the Missouri courts, the state Supreme Court rejected this argument in 1852, Dred Scott, with the help of abolitionist lawyers, appealed to the United States Supreme Court. In a 7 to 2 decision, the Court ruled against Dred Scott. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who was formerly a member of Andrew Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet and a loyal
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Entertaining presidential ambitions party leader Stephen Douglas sought a solution that might win him both northern and southern support in a run for that office in 1860. Douglas got his opportunity in a debate with his 1858 Republican rival for US Senate which was Abraham Lincoln. Born in 1809 on the Kentucky frontier, Lincoln had accompanied his family from one failed farm to another, picking u schooling in Indiana and Illinois as opportunities arose. Lincoln acknowledged that slavery was evil but contended that it was the unavoidable consequence of black racial inferiority. The only way to get rid of evil, he believed, was to prevent its expansion into the territories, forcing it to die out naturally. Douglas’s position favoring popular sovereignty flew in the face of Lincoln’s designs as so, at a debate In Freeport Illinois Lincoln asked Douglas to explain how the people of territory could exclude slavery in light of the Dred Scott ruling. Douglas’s reply became known as the Freeport Doctrine. He said, Slavery needed the protection of “local police regulations.” In any territory, citizens opposed to slavery could elect representatives who would “by unfriendly legislation” prevent the introduction of slavery. This would become Douglas’s solution as he approached the 1860 election. Northern activists rejected Douglas’s compromise and increasingly called for
Entertaining presidential ambitions party leader Stephen Douglas sought a solution that might win him both northern and southern support in a run for that office in 1860. Douglas got his opportunity in a debate with his 1858 Republican rival for US Senate which was Abraham Lincoln. Born in 1809 on the Kentucky frontier, Lincoln had accompanied his family from one failed farm to another, picking u schooling in Indiana and Illinois as opportunities arose. Lincoln acknowledged that slavery was evil but contended that it was the unavoidable consequence of black racial inferiority. The only way to get rid of evil, he believed, was to prevent its expansion into the territories, forcing it to die out naturally. Douglas’s position favoring popular sovereignty flew in the face of Lincoln’s designs as so, at a debate In Freeport Illinois Lincoln asked Douglas to explain how the people of territory could exclude slavery in light of the Dred Scott ruling. Douglas’s reply became known as the Freeport Doctrine. He said, Slavery needed the protection of “local police regulations.” In any territory, citizens opposed to slavery could elect representatives who would “by unfriendly legislation” prevent the introduction of slavery. This would become Douglas’s solution as he approached the 1860 election. Northern activists rejected Douglas’s compromise and increasingly called for